The best 4 x 4 by far - perhaps not?

It was a great day, weather was going to be kind to us as the intrepid four volunteers Phil, David, Jim and supervisor Mr T aka Theo the collie set off to Dunthwaite Estate nr Cockermouth to repair and refurbish stiles for the fishermen by the river Cocker - what could possibly go wrong! We took with us the countryside team Land Rover and trailer with sufficient supplies to see us through our proposed work.

Well it`s like this!

We may have a little problem?

Having repaired and built some new stiles it was time to leave. Sadly our transport and trailer had other ideas. So it was unhitch the trailer and extracate the Landy from the mud.

Trailer off but still stuck!

Fortunately we had some wood left plus shovels to assist in getting us out of the mud. We were not going to be beaten by the mud as the Rangers had done on several occasions previously and call upon the services of the nearby NT tenant farmer and his tractor.

Getting there.

Apart from repairing an building stiles we ended up landscaping as well to remove the evidence of us being stuck. Don`t worry we subsequently found a use for the lifesaving timber we had used to free ourselves.

A strategically place branch hides the identity of Phil as we set about landscaping the ruts!

To be perfectly fair to the Land Rover the previous week the Nissan off roader had also been stuck on an incline nearby on solid ground - it could not pull itself and a trailer up a small wet incline. Wagon first then tow the trailer on a rope - just a normal day volunteering?

Mind you it would have helped if the land Rover was equipped with mud tyres and not road ones -  countryside vehicle road tyres - now where is my volunteer manager!

Just to show we could get anything stuck - Nissan defeated by solid wet ground and a trailer!

Will we come back for more - of course we will. Positive feedback from the fishermen that pay a hefty premium to the NT who own the fishing rights on that stretch of the river were good. Sort of made it worthwhile. (the fees for fishing rights go back into the North Lakes property towards the cost of all the conservation works we undertake)